Ray Dan
Ray Dan is an enemy featured in Kung Fuville, a martial arts inspired world in Gex, the first game of the series. This class is among the hub's most common, making multiple appearances in Fish Bait and debuting in Sumo City, a stage which fitingly features a stormy sky as its background. It is only absent from Chop Chop, which heavily focuses on the Samurai Gecko. An elemental enemy, Ray Dan floats along the ground, serving as a moving obstacle, only to attack Gex upon noticing him by concentrating electricity in the palm of its hand and flinging a thunder bolt from his index finger that follows a linear path towards him. Design and inspiration When viewed from a distance, Ray Dan's has the appearance of an ordinary villager with a serious face expression that is wearing an conical Asian hat, common clothes and a large chain in his neck. However, at closer distances the enemy's supernatural abilities become far more noticeable. It becomes apparent that he is actually floating in the air instead of walking, while electricity emanates from his hands. His glowing white eyes, which where obscured by its hat are the trait that further reflects Ray Dan's power. This enemy is based on Raiden, the Thunder God and Earth guardian character of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, which is made evident by the pun used to name it. By being featured in Gex a game which was released in 1994, only two years after the creation of the original Mortal Kombat, Ray Dan's appearance serves as one of the earliest homages paid to that that franchise by an independent studio within the video game industry. It also unofficially contributes to Raiden's status as the Mortal Kombat character with most cameos in games outside his own continuity, with him also appearing as a secret character in NBA Jam Tournament Edition, Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict and NFL Blitz among other titles. With only the former preceding Gex by less than a year. Like his namesake, Ray Dan's powers and fierce personality are based on Raijin, the deity of storms, thunder and lighting in traditional Japanese mythology and the modern Shinto, a spiritual practice and religion that is still widespread in Japan. However, its clothes and general appearance more closely resemble Chinese cultural elements and traditions, including some inspiration from the thunder gods of Taoist religion such as Lei Gong, which is something that he inherited from Raiden's development for Mortal Kombat. The most evident of these is the pointed sedge hat, an element present in several Asian cultures that use it when harvesting rice, but that has become associated with China in the Western hemisphere. However, Ray Dan's robe closely resembles the han fu, a formal robe used by the Han Chinese ethnic group, in direct contrast to Raiden's combat robe and the gi-like uniform that he first wore. Despite this, the blue coloration in the enemy's clothing was retained from its inspiration's Mortal Kombat II vest. which was of a slighly brighter shade. Likewise, Ray Dan retained the combat belt used by Raiden during his days as Earth guardian and until being killed and reborn as "Dark Raiden", which was recolored from black to a sharp shade of red. Behaviour and strategy Category:Enemies